Don't Hide

Its been a while since I have blogged and felt the need to blog about something today.  Over the last few months I have been praising God for good health and the fact that I am completely off of my medication for Lyme Disease.  Its such a wonderful thing when you can look back over you life and remember where you were, how bad of a situation you were in, and praise God for His goodness and extreme mercy towards you.

I have also been reflecting on how often silent I as well as other Christians can be about our beliefs and Christianity.  Why is it that sports, music, education, etc., get more publicity out of my mouth than Jesus?!?!?!!  Hey if the shoe fits for you then wear it, but I am blogging about myself primarily.  I have to constantly think about when I meet people or am seen in different places, what fragrance do I leave with people.  By my presence, do I present Jesus to them; not by my words so much but more so just by my presence.  Not a bible study, not even initially what I believe, but is the fragrance of Jesus left to linger in their atmosphere?

I, by the grace of God, want to make sure that the God who has saved me, delivered me, and continues to bless me is made KNOWN!!!  After all, if you can't make Jesus known why are you a Christian?  In my world, I am trying my best to not hide the fact that Jesus loves me and I love Him!  He always deserves a standing ovation.  Jesus always deserves and encore.  Jesus deserves everything and more....come on and help me with making him known, everywhere you go!!!

Fear and Faith

This past week in my world I learned a lesson that maybe you have already learned, and that is that for a large portion of my life I have lived on fear rather than on faith.  If you would be honest it can be extremely scary, nerve-racking, and altogether frightening to step out in areas where you are unsure of what will happen. For a large portion of my life, I used to think that I was living by faith just because I went to church, sang in a choir, or even read my bible.  I mean lets be honest, you can read the bible but not have a relationship with Jesus...

In my world I had to come to the stunning reality that faith is not experienced until you begin walking in areas of the unknown!  Faith is also only built when you put God's word to the test and begin holding on to God's word more than you have held to your feelings.  I had to laugh literally out loud because for so long I felt and thought that I was living a full life of faith until things happened that pushed me to trust the word of God.  If you can already see everything work out and are in a position where you can make things work out, thats not faith.  But you begin walking in faith when faith finds you in a position where all you can honestly do is trust God's word.

The reason this hit me so hard in my world is because I realized that walking in faith and walking by faith has so many benefits and I am missing out on huge blessings because of my fear.  My fear and maybe yours too can literally paralyze you to the point where you can't see Gods blessings, experience God's blessings, and rejoice in God's blessings because fear has kept you locked in a prison to which you are serving a lifetime sentence.  But I do believe that its time for us to have a "prison break"!  Join me as we begin to, by God's grace stop allowing fear to keep us from experiencing what God wants us to have!  Thats what I learned in my world...peace!

Trust

Trust is such an important factor in life.  It affects every single aspect of our life.  For those employed, there is a level of trust with your employer and co-workers.  For those married, there is a high level of trust with your spouse.  Those with friends, have expectations that our friends will help us and not harm us.  If you have a sibling, you trust that your sibling has your back no matter what happens in life.  I have learned in my world though, that trust often takes years to develop BUT takes seconds to destroy. We spend years of invested interest in people and yet, one experience can damage everything.

We have all been hurt before, and possibly more than once by people who we thought we had an indescribable amount of trust in.  I used to ask myself questions like:  Why did they hurt me so much?  Did they ever love me and appreciate me since the hurt was so devastating?  Why does it seem like my life is on hold for as long as the pain lasts?  I kept asking myself these and questions like these until God revealed to me that "Even though its okay for you to trust people, love people, and have relationships with people; you are expecting from them what they were not designed to give you.  What do you mean Lord? "You expect them to be your savior and they were only designed to be a significant part of your life...the faith you have in them is only supposed to go to me."

I thought about what God shared with me and thought that it was such a hard word considering that the hurt was so deep.  But maybe the hurt was so deep because I allowed it to get there by investing what should have gone to God, to them.  My prayer is that I can start investing my faith in the right person...God!  I hope what I have learned in my world has helped you a little bit...Peace!

Prayer

Its been so long since I posted so I felt compelled to say something before the week finished.  I have been learning something about prayer on my journey toward learning more about Jesus.  In my world I often time take so much time praying for people, or praying that God will bless this or do that.  If you're like me you often find yourself praying about so many different situations that you need God to attend to, to fix and to change.

God can you bless my wife?  God can you fix my finances?  Would you please touch my child from staying stuck on stupid?  We pray for so many things and so many people a sundry of situations that we desperately wants Gods help in.  One day I realized while in prayer that I was so busy praying for so many other things that I forgot something important to pray for....ME!!!

If God doesn't change anything else, at least he will change my perspective toward what going on!  In my world, I learned that Gods desire is to change ME, but desire is more on Him changing the things around me.  If God is in fact all powerful than what is around me isn't really huge concern; the greater problem is me and if I am willing to be changed by the power and mercy of God.  So can I encourage you to find, as I have, a new perspective on prayer, and that is on focusing on God changing you!

Why I Quit Church, Part 2

As promised I wanted to post the second part of the topic on why people are leaving church.  In my world I meet many people who are just disinterested in church for a number of reasons today.  I want to thank my friend Damien "Chip" Dizard for being willing to share in my blog!




Many children grow up forced to attend church and it's not a pleasurable experience.  You know the line, "children should be seen and not heard” most churches give 10 to 15 minutes of a children's story and then expect children not to move, eat or do anything the entire time.  I find that utterly ridiculous.  That's why my family attends the church we do now.  Not because we are in love with the preaching, fellowship or even the facilities. Our children look forward to attending church and they actually learn something once they leave.   I didn't have this opportunity growing up and my wife and I wanted to give our children the best chance for success. Does that mean they won't get tired of church? Sure they may, but their childhood memories of church should be one of engagement activity and learning.

I have also heard stories of many families who never missed church but missed other important engagements for their children. Basketball games, musical recitals and more, but church, God's house is never put on the back burner. Families can argue all week long, but they will sit next to each other smiling and holding hands in church.

Have you ever felt guilty for not attending church?  More and people especially younger Seventh-day Adventists aren't attending church regularly.  I was talking with a friend recently whose sister who grew up in church who doesn’t attend or watch it online either. I think the story is similar to someone you know.  It's an epidemic that spreads deep and wide. You may know a person who is guilted into attending church because they feel inadequate and once they feel better they go right back and do the same thing.

James 1:23-24 says "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like."

This text hit me because it is just foolish.  God doesn't take attendance, but he knows when you listen to the word and don't follow through.

How can you follow through with God today?  Tell us about your church attendance experience.  Leave in the comments below.

Chip Dizárd is a Christian, tech expert, author and blogger. He is passionate about his family and reaching people for Christ. His tech blogs are at chipdizard.com.

Why I Quit Church, Part 1

This blog was completed by Mr. Damien "Chip" Dizard, and after he sent it to me, I could not resist the urge to post to my blog.  Please feel free to give feedback!  Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.  Enjoy!





Church has been a mainstay in my life for years. I remember my dad parting my hair from east to west every week before church.  I remember being told when in church all the earth should keep silent.  



I remember church like it was yesterday.  I grew up at Liberty seventh day Adventist church.  I remember moving around from building to building until we finally left.



I remember my mom and my dad spending hours at church board meetings and then coming home frustrated with things. This is how I remember church.



I never had a bad experience at church. I just never had an experience.



In my college years I got tired of going to church.  Or if I went it was to check out a girl or grab a free meal. Back then, the hype church was Capitol Hill SDA where Wintley Phipps was the pastor.  I attended Columbia union college (now Washington Adventist university) and the fellas made sure we had the fresh cuts and suits in order to impress the ladies and be seen.



But I was tired.  I was tired of the same thing with no comittment. So I quit church.  I left without a trace.  I would show up for special days and to tell my parents I was going and I gave money occasionally.  But I had no real connection, and my friends which weren't into church didn't understand why I went to church anyway.



Years later, my big play sister Sharon invited me to  a church.  It was in the ghetto of Baltimore and the name was Miracle Temple. She said I should come and hear the preacher.  I wasn't really interested, but when someone you respect invites you and feeds you after, you oblige.   I went on the first Saturday of the year in 2000 and a preacher named Freddie Russell was talking about vision.  I was confused, I didn't think I was in a business setting, but he had a powerpoint and was stating where the church needed to go.  I was intrigued and wanted to know how a preacher could give a powerpoint and not a hell-fire breathing sermon on the first day of the year. It was Y2K and everyone was afraid that the end was near.  Pastor Russell may have missed that memo.



After church I introduced myself and I came back again and again.  I invited people. They came with me. I even attended prayer meeting.  This was different. This was the "unchurch."   In the next few years I joined and became lead webmaster and then in charge of media, but it was all because from an invite from a friend.



How can we use friendship evangelism in our local churches? In the next series of blogs I will lay out how to make our churches more "seeker" friendly and how to reclaim them for the 20-30 crowd.

The reason why I vote

Hey everyone, I thought the day before the United States elections for President I would just give my personal reasons as to why in my world...I vote.  I have actually never been into politics.  Though I have always liked and enjoyed serving people the political side often gets in the way of helping people who need help the most.  We often spend so much time trying to decide who to put into certain offices and no time is invested into determining how we are going to go about serving people.

It really bothers me though, when we do this in church.  When we spend time, dedication and energy in politics and positioning ourselves in places where we want to go instead of where God wants us to be.  In my world, I have never personally felt like we needed to follow a democratic system in church.  I guess maybe at times, because we don't trust the power of prayer, we would rather put everything to a vote.  Since we don't want to take the time to get on our faces to God and find out what he really desires, we are content to vote it out?  This is not to suggest that God works in the midst of us voting....however could it be possible that we vote something that God doesn't even want...for his people?

I'm sorry, I just had to get that off my chest about church...back to the nation.  My premise for voting within in the democracy of the United States is simple.  There are many people who gave up their lives so that I could.  They said to themselves: I will gladly die, if one day my great, great grandson will be able to vote.  So, out of respect to my ancestors and people who have paved the way for me...I vote.  I still understand that plight that African Americans have historically held in this country, and would honestly be ashamed not to vote.  Why not take an opportunity to do something, that for years my family could never do?

I have talked to many people who, for one reason or another are not voting.  They feel that President Obama has let them down.  They sense that Governor Mitt Romney is not the best candidate.  Since my world is governed by the word of God, let me remind us all that the bible says in Daniel 2:21, that it is God that sets up rulership.  Regardless of who serves or is elected, it is only because God wanted or allowed them, for that time and season to be in that position.  I think too often, we see ourselves as a god, and feel that we are in charge of what happens.  How about we exercise our right to vote and leave the bigger things up to God?  After all....I honestly believe He knows what He is doing!  

That why in my world...I vote!